2011 album by Peter Gabriel. The album grew out of the Scratch My Back sessions, and consists of orchestral reworkings of several of Peter Gabriel's older tracks.
This is a stunning album. Peter's voice sounds amazing. He's taken the texture that age has brought and is also still hitting almost all the notes, and you can tell he's a technically better singer than he used to be. The orchestration is well done and well played. It's interesting hearing a song like San Jacinto, which was groundbreaking on its original release for the use of the Fairlight CMI and electronic drums, and hearing the songs with a completely organic, natural orchestra, and how that brings out a whole different set of emotions. This is also the first album of rock songs put to an orchestral treatment that I feel properly captures and uses the orchestra to convey the energy and power that is conveyed in rock music. Too many orchestral albums (the Pink Floyd one and The Symphonic Music of Yes for instance) end up sounding like watered down easy listening, or worse; rely on rock instruments for color. Gabriel doesn't fall into that trap here, and the result is great, powerful music.
This is a must-get for any Peter Gabriel fan. I was skeptical at first but the album is just so stunningly beautiful that I'm a convert. I'd still like Peter to put out a new album of original material, however.